
Qass. 
Book. 



,(1.^^ 



EULOGY 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



DKLIVERED AT 



ROCKLAND, MAHSTE, 



AprU 19, 1865, 



BY REQUEST OF THE CITIZENS. 



REY. EDY^ARD F. CUTTER. 



BOSTON: 

D. C. COLESWORTHY, 66 CORNHILL. 
1865. 



EULOaX 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



DELIVERED AT 



ROCKLAND, MAINE, 



April 19, 1865, 



BY BEQUEST OF THE CITIZENS. 



REY. EDWARD F. CUTTER. 



BOSTON: 

D. C. COLESWORTHY, 66 CORNHILL. 

1865. 






r^ OF CO.VG/i^;^ 

i388 



EULOGY. 



" The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places I How are the mighty fallen I " 

On the 19th of April, 1775, the first blood of the Revolu- 
tion was shed at Lexington. 

On the 19tli of April, 18G1, the first blood of this terrible 
conflict between freedom and slavery was shed in Baltimore. 

On this lOtli of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the first 
President of these United States whose name and administra- 
tion will be forever associated with Universal Emancipation, 
struck down by the assassin's hand, is carried to his burial 
at Washington ; and a nation is in tears. 

The martyrs of Lexington and Baltimore died under the 
lurid skies of the morning, betokening a day of dark and doubt- 
ful conflict. Abraham Lincoln died at eventide, when the 
sun, breaking through the scattering clouds, tinged them with 
gold and purple, giving promise for the morrow, and tlirevv 
across the yet darkened sky the bow of hope, — iiarbinger of 
peace. 

But the victor may die, and the victory not be lost. The 
seed ripens for the harvest, though the hand of the sower be 
cold in death. 

More than two centuries ago, Gustavus Adolphus, the most 
illustrious hero of his time, died, in the hour of victory, on 
the blood-stained field of Lutzen. But we, to-day, enjoying 
civil and religious freedom, are reaping the fruits of that vic- 
tory over papal despotism and imperial tyranny. 

More than a century back, tlie gallant Wolfe died, in the 
hour of triumph, on the Plains of Abraham ; but the victory 
was not lost. The papal and French power on this continent 
was forever broken, and the way was prepared for the Ameri- 
can Revolution and the birth of this glorious Republic. 



Nelson, too, died at Trafalgar, in the hour of his most splen- 
did victory ; but that did not restore the shattered navy of 
France. Napoleon, almost omnipotent on the land, was power- 
less on the ocean. England was mistress of the seas. 

So Lincoln has died amid the shouts of victory ; but free- 
dom, for which he fought and conquered, is not dead. It lives, 
and will live ; for One, whom no assassin's dagger can reach, 
is its sure defence. The blood of its martyrs, under his over- 
ruling providence, but makes the seed ripen in more luxuriant 
beauty and more abundant harvest. We rejoice that Lincoln, 
even as the great Hebrew prophet, was permitted to enjoy a 
vision from Pisgah, though he entered not the Promised Land ; 
but, thank God, he saw it nigh, and a liglit blessed his latter 
day, which, if not the full noontide glory, was yet the morning 
spread on the mountains, showing that the night was past. 

He saw the giant Rebellion broken ; its strongholds along 
our mighty rivers and on our ocean headlands captured ; 
its traitor leader, a fugitive and a vagabond, seeking some rest- 
ing-place for the sole of his foot, — without a capital, without 
a treasury, without an army, despised by his deluded follow- 
ers, and execrated by all loyal men. Yes: everywhere, along 
the banks of the Mississippi, at Savannah, on Sumter's walls, 
over Charleston, Wilmington, and Richmond, the old flag float- 
ed ; and brave men rallied round it, stern in purpose that it 
should float there forever. We thank God, Lincoln saw all 
this before he died ; and, a conqueror, trod the streets of the 
proud rebel capital, and dictated the terms of submission to 
traitors in arms. It would have been sad indeed, had this toil- 
ing, faithful servant died while an unbroken cloud rested on 
the land he loved, or without the full assurance of its ap- 
proaching triumph. 

We remember, too, how long and patiently Lincoln struggled 
with treachery and imbecility on every hand, seeking to find 
hearts as true and honest as his own, united with firm purpose 
and masterly skill to guide our army and navy on to victory. 
We thank God tliat he found them, — Grant, Sherman, Sheri- 
dan, Thomas, Farragut, Porter, Alden, Winslow, Gushing, and 
their gallant fellows, both in rank and file, — and could rest his 
weary arms on these Aarons and Hurs, and see the Amalekites 



scattered like chaff before tlicse gallant leaders. If there were 
any premonition tliat he might fall, as he has fallen, suddenly, 
we rejoice that he could feel — and this was all he desired — 
that the country was safe. He left her destinies, under God, 
in charge of hearts as true, and hands as strong, as his own. 

One other desire of his great lieart was granted. In liis last 
proclamations, he vindicated the Government and the flag be- 
fore the world. Asserting the ])ower of tlie Government over 
all its sea[)orts, by stern edict he closed the rebellious ports 
against the commerce of tbe world, and demanded for the old 
flag its rightful position on every sea and in every harbor. 
How his heart exulted when he tbus vindicated the Govern- 
ment and flag, and demanded the homage of all nations as 
a right, not a boon ! Tbat word of autliority will be respect- 
ed ; an army and navy such as the world never saw lie behind 
it. Ay ! and we, the people, will see to it that these last 
edicts of Abraham Lincoln, now, alas ! scaled with his blood, 
are maintained to tlic letter. Woe, woe to any foreign power, 
woe to any traitor at home, who shall assume to put in a plea of 
neutrality, or attempt, on the ground of belligerent rights, to 
evade the laws ! The liour of submission to insult is past. 
We are a nation among nations again. 

We thank God, besides, that Abraham Lincoln did not die 
till he had the fvdl assurance that, as he loved and honored the 
people, so the people loved and honored him. Next to the ap- 
proval of God and his own conscience, this was the ajjproval 
he desired and valued most. It has l)een often said, " Rejjub- 
lics are proverl)ially ungrateful." Neither Washington nor 
Lincoln have had such experience : a grateful, reverent peo- 
ple have delighted to do them honor in life ; and their memory 
is a nation's most cherished crown. 

You all remember the Ides of November last, when the shout 
of a free people, from Maine to California, like the voice of 
many waters, rang on the air, " Well done! g-ood andfaithfid 
servant!''^ and the will of the nation, almost unanimous, 
placed again on Lincoln's brow the crown he had once worn 
so wortliily. And what a diadem ! every star in its settino- ra- 
diant with freedom ! not a gem stained !)y tear of groaning 
slave ! Mark the brilliant stars, — Maine, — 



' Our own de.ar old Maine, Union's polar star 
Dirigo beams bright in peace and in war : 
Its beacon-light flashing o'er land and sea, 
Aye for Freedom, for Union, and Victory 1 " 



Massachusetts, the light caiiglit from early Pilgrim fires 
blazing out in full-orbed meridian splendor ; Vermont, " the 
star that never sets," with tlieir sister Pleiades of New Eng- 
land ; the Empire and Keystone States, brightest of the starry 
liost ; the miglity constellations of the West, whose earliest 
beam was kindled at Freedom's altar, circling the glorious dia- 
dem like the bands of Orion ; the golden r>tar of California 
and distant Oregon ; the brilliant triad, Missouri, Maryland, 
West Virginia, for the first time showing their full radiance, 
unobscured by a cloud; and the newly risen star of Nevada, 
twinkling and tremulous, but pure as the snows of her eter- 
nally clad mauntains. 



" Hark, hark I to God the chorus breaks, 
From every star, from every gem." 



Maine begins the song: the strain, gathering strength and 
fulness, rolls on, star after star swelliug the note, across the 
hills and valleys of New England, along the beautiful Hudson 
and the " blue Juniata," waking the echoes of the Alleghany, 
sweeping down the broad prairies of the West, leaping from 
peak to peak of the Rocky Mountains, and dying out amid the 
ocean murmurs on the Pacific shore, — an unbroken strain of 
Freedom, Freedom, Universal Emancipation. Not a groan nor 
sigh of the oppressed mars the beauty of the song, which rolls 
upward, the Jubilee Thanksgiving of an emancipated nation, 
and sweetly blends with the everlasting anthem above. 

Methinks the old mountain eagle, glorious bird of our ban- 
ner, as the new and ravishing strain brake on his startled ear, 
and the film that had partially clouded his eye fell off, and the 
dazzling glory burst on his disenthralled vision, darted from 
his rocky height with exultant wing and joyous cry, sweeping 
in swifter and wider circuit round tlie land of whose great- 
ness and power he is the proud emblem, — the land, all whose 
highways and by-ways were, from henceforth and forever, to 



be as free to every human foot as the bright paths of the fir- 
mament to his own free, unchained pinions ! 

This coronet of freedom, brighter tlian ever decked monarch's 
brow, all radiant with freedom's stars, a grateful, loving, trust- 
ing people, on the fourth of March last, placed on the head of 
Abraham Lincoln ; and the head was worthy to wear it. The 
high honor, denied even to our glorious, godlike Washington, 
of being the first of a long and honored line of presidential 
kings who shall wear the crown of freedom, unsullied and un- 
obscured by the touch or stain of slavery, was reserved in prov- 
idence for " this man of the people," born and bi'cd in poverty, 
struggling up the rough ways of life by hard, honest work, 
catching but here and there a draught from those fountains of 
knowledge, which, on freedom's soil, gush up alike for all, rich 
and poor. Freedom made and freedom crowned him ; and that 
crown shall ever be ours, — for never — wo, never ^ no, never — 
shall our glorious national diadem be circled by a star or a 
gem that is not the willing offering of freedom and freemen. 

Surely, he who first wore such a coronet, though he has 
fallen by cruel hand, had, before he fell, the testimony that he 
pleased God. 

To a tender, loving heart like Lincoln's, there was a blessing 
more precious than all this wordly honor, — the blessing of the 
poor bondmen he had redeemed from the lash and the chain, 
restoring to them the manhood of which they had been so 
wrongfully spoiled, and pouring the light of freedom upon the 
long, long night that had" enshrouded them as the shadow of 
death. More precious in the sight of God than costly oblations, 
" pearls from the ocean, or gold from the mine," are the 
prayers of the poor ; and no cup of blessing does he ever put 
to human lips, filled Avitli purer draught from the river of 
life than the earnest love, the joyous homage, of the weak 
and lowly ones, whose sincere and unaffected tribute of grati- 
tude is fragrant as the incense from the altars of God. We 
rejoice that the hand of the assassin was stayed till Lincoln 
had drank this cup to tlie full, till on his ear, as he entered 
Richmond without pomp or parade, brake the shouts and hal- 
lelujahs of the thousands who hailed him as their Messiah ap- 
pointed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to preach 



delivcrancG to the captives, to set at liberty them that were 
bruised, and iinfoh;! the gospel of freedom to the poor. 

Ah, how earthly glory and greatness fade before the heaven- 
ly radiance of scenes like these ! " When the ear heard him, then 
it blessed him ; and, when the eye saw him, it gave witness to 
him, because he delivered the poor that cried, and the father- 
less, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him 
that was ready to perish came upon him." Even freedom's 
coronet, all radiant with stars, was not a crown like this ! 

What more could be given to mortal man ? God had yet 
one blessing more, his last best gift, — the assurance of for- 
given sin in Christ Jesus ; and this was not witldield. There was, 
as always in minds sincere and thoughtful as Lincoln's, a deep 
underlaying of ijeligious sentiment, a reverent regard for the 
Bible, a strong confidence in God's providence; but such minds 
advance slowly to the full, clear, decisive acceptance of the 
gospel, so as to make the entire, hearty surrender of the soul 
unto Christ. You remember Mr. Lincoln's experience, so sim- 
ply and frankly told, when a friend asked if he was really and 
fully a Christian. With deep and tearful emotion, he replied, 
" Wlien 1 left Springfield, making my parting request to my 
friends to pray for me, I was not a Cliristian ; when my son 
died, and the darkest sorrow of my life came upon me, I was 
not a Clu'istian ; but wlien I went to Gettysburg, and looked 
on the graves of the noble dead, who died for their country, I 
gave my heart to Christ." What though the summons came 
suddenly as lightning flash ! he was ready. 

" He fell, but felt no fear." 

Who was this man, so honored and beloved? I need not 
recite his history. You all know it, the world knows it, by 
heart. 

He was a true man. " Tlie elements so mixed in him, that 
Nature might stand up, and say to all the world, This i.vas a 
man.''^ ^y? a lufi'i witliout tinsel or trapping; his manhood, 
his glory and covering. High office, loving praise, harsh cen- 
sure and deadly hate, — all were his; but he bore them as a man, 
meekly, with no show of pride, uncomplaining, the generous 
sympathies of his manly heart binding him to all alike, rich 
and poor, master and slave; never cringing to the high, nor 



lording it over the low ; for he recognized in every man a 
brother, and never forgot that he also was a man. In this de- 
velopment of a broad liumanity, nnaffccted by changing cir- 
cumstance, — and his was a life of lowest depression and of 
highest elevation, — he showed the true greatness of his nature. 
For great natures alone are superior to outward circumstance, 
and develop the godlike image, alike in incarnation and in 
exaltation. 

He was a strong man. His physical, moral, and intellectual 
frame was marked more by strength tlian by grace and beauty. 
Hence many, who look only at the outward, and appreciate the 
gem by the richness of its setting, undervalued him. But his 
was a great mind in its grasp and its hold. It was a mind to 
guide amid the storm, and hold the ship of State to her moor- 
ings. A ship, fniished in rounded lines, in the tall masts, ta- 
pering spars, swelling sails, and gay pennons, is a thing of life 
and beauty. As she flouts on the tide, no sea-bird skims the 
wave more gracefully. The eye never wearies in admiration 
of her marvellous beauty. To a careless observer, who, in tlie 
love of tlie beautiful, forgets the useful, the rough, unwieldy 
anchor, and the huge, bulky chain, may seem a deformity. No 
ornament decks them : in rude, unadorned strength, they wait 
their hour. When the skies are sunny, and the winds blow 
softly, and the billows roll gently on, then the beautiful sails 
and spars are seen ; and, with light and buoyant wing, the gal- 
lant sliip speeds onward. But, when the storm breaks, the 
winds lift up their voice, and the billows chase each other in 
maddening wrath, and the lookout cries from the mast-head, 
" Breakers ! breakers a'lee ! " then, that rough, ungainly anchor, 
and that rude, I)ulky chain, hold her to her moorings, and save 
her from ingulfnig waves. So, in times of peace, the grace- 
ful, polished mind, trained and fniislied in the schools, may 
guide the ship of State over the sunny sea; and the gallant 
bark, under the gentle hand, skim, like sea-bird, the rippling 
wave. But when tlie storm breaks^ — treason, sedition, 
war, — and the ship is rocked and tossed amid the breakers, 
then the rugged intellect of a Cromwell, an Abraham Lincoln, 
is demanded. And who, who has not felt, amid the dark 
and howlint;' storm of Ihcse last four years, that the stronu', in- 



10 

flexible purpose, the mind embedded in unfaltering conviction 
of the riglit, and the unshalvcn confidence that God would 
make riglit triumphant, of Abraham Lincoln, has been the 
sheet-ayichor of our hope ? and we bless God it was not 
wrenched from its hold till the storm had spent its fury, the 
winds were lulling, the sea, like a tired gladiator, sinking to 
repose, and the haven of peace opening to the tempest-tost 
bark. Had this terrible calamity befallen the good ship while 
the storm was at its height, where should we have found an 
anchor as strong, as deeply embedded, and as sure an emblem 
of faith and hope to all the people ? 

This strong man had an inflexible love of right. Wedded to 
no theory, ready to adopt another man's system as his own, 
provided only the great end were maintained, he unselfishly 
sought to advance his country's highest good. He was slow, it 
may be, — such minds as his always are : they never jump 
at conclusions, but by long, patient, toiling investigation, de- 
termine truth and right. But these, once fixed, are fixed 
forever ; and there is seldom occasion to retrace a step once 
taken. The singleness of purpose and the calm investigation 
of such a mind as Lincoln's, make it rarely, if ever, necessary 
to take a, step backward. The advance may seem slow; but it 
is ever onward. 

This man Lincoln, a man of the people, had an implicit faith 
in the people, whose exponent and executive he was proud to 
be. No child ever hung with more reverent ear on a mother's 
lips than he on the voice of the people. He was ready and 
glad to follow them. He bore the ark of the covenant, sym- 
bol of law and government, as it was borne of old hi the midst 
of the tribes ; the people surrounded it as a wall, — ad- 
vanced with it, rested when it rested. Hence, when a march 
was gained, there was no loitering for the tribes to come up: 
the ark and the people were always together. So Lincoln has 
gone with the people, and the people with him ; and every ad- 
vance step of freedom has been held because il was taken in 
the hour when leader and people both felt it was demanded. 
Thus the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the 
emancipation proclamation, the enlistment of negro soldiei's, 
and the great Constitutional Amendment, were the unchange- 



11 

able edict of executive and people acting and speaking to- 
gether. So scaled and signed, they can never be abrogated. 
The fiat of the executive alone might be set aside ; but the fiat 
of executive and people is final. 

But wliat sliall we say of this man's genial sympathies and 
large heart, tender as a mother's in its yearning lo\e? No 
burden of care, no pressure of business, ever closed his ear 
to suffering cry, or made him forget any poor afflicted one 
who might claim his protection or blessing. 

You may remember the affecting story of a soldier in the 
Third Vermont Regiment, condemned to die for sleeping at his 
post. The President examined the case, and found extenuat- 
ing circumstances in the fact that the soldier had been on 
duty two nights in succession, the second niglit voluntarily for 
a sick comrade, and the third night had fallen asleep. Ho sent 
a pardon ; but the last day ai-rivod, and, liaving heard noth- 
ing, he began to fear it had not reached its destination. 
Failing to get a satisfactory answer by telegraph, he laid every 
thing else aside, though the burden of a great nation rested on 
his shoulder, ordered his carriage, and drove rapidly to the 
camp, some ten miles distant, to assure himself it was all right. 
That soldier never forgot him. In a deadly charge on the 
Peninsula, he fell, pierced by six bullets. As his comrades 
lifted him up, he exclaimed, " Bear witness I have proved my- 
self not a coward, and am not afraid to die." He was a Chris- 
tian soldier ; and with his last breath he prayed for the kind- 
hearted President, Abraham Lincoln. x\_h ! how many dying 
lips have blessed him ! how many hearts in hut, hovel, camp, 
and hospital, have prayed for him witli more than filial love 
as their friend and father ! God ! how faith clings to the 
eternal throne in trembling fear, that such a man should fall 
by the assassin's hand when a thousand loyal hearts would 
have received the deadly bullets to have shielded him. " Oh the 
depth of the riches both of the ivisdom and ktioinledg-e of God! 
Hoiv unsearchable are his judgments ! and his ivays past find- 
ing out. Be still, and knoiv I am God.^' 

You will bear witness, I have not exaggerated the virtues of 
the man. But let me confirm what I have said, by tlie testi- 
mony of an intelligent, large-hearted friend of ours across the 



12 

» 

water, Prof. Cairncs of Dublin, who gives in brief outline the 
character and position of Lincoln, thus :.. — 

" The formal, decorous, courtly figure of the founder of the 
Union will contrast strangely wdth the ungainly and unpolished 
figure of (we trust) its destined restorer. But history will rec- 
ognize one thing common to George Washington and Abraham 
Lincoln, — a pure honesty void of self-seeking. When the heats 
of party passion and international jealousy have abated, when 
detraction has spent its malice, and the scandalous gossip of 
the day goes the way of all lies, the i^lacc of Abraham Lincoln 
in the grateful affection of his countrymen and in the respect 
of the world will be second only, if it be second, to that of 
Washington himself." 

But Lincoln is dead, " After life's fitful fever, he sleeps 
well: treason has done its worst; nor steel nor poison, malice 
domestic, foreign levy, nothing, can touch him further." 
Yes: he sleeps well, — forever at rest in the bosom of his 
God, and in the heart of the nation. 

To-day, the ordinary voices of life are hushed, the marts of 
commerce are still. From Atlantic to Pacific, the tolling bell, 
the solemn dirge, the minute-gun, the funeral wail, the tearful 
prayer, tell a nation's grief as we bear our loved chieftain to 
his burial. Reverently, we draw nigh to gaze on that pale face, 
wearing its wonted sad yet hopeful aspect, showing how the 
burden of a nation's conflict pressed on his mighty soul, and 
his calm trusting reliance on God. Who, who can repress the 
prayer, that, for one brief moment at least, life might stir that 
mighty brain but yesterday so earnest a worker for human 
good, that genial heart, so full of kindness to all, and unseal 
those dumb lips whose utterances will never die ? Methinks 
I see that moment of renewed life, and catch the farewell 
word : " My countrymen, he true to God, to rig-ht, to freedom: 
lie loyal to the vnioti, the constiti/iion, the country, and the old 
flag. Never suffer a fetter that lias been bro/een to be yielded 
anew, nor pause in the icork of freedom, till all are free. 
To him on ivhom my mantle has fallen, give as generous love, 
as cordial support, as unceasing remembrance in prayer, as you 
have given me. Trust in God: all ivill be ivell.'' The lips are 
hushing into long silence ; but we bend lower, and catch a 



13 

whisper, — a whisper of prayer, " O God! defend., bless, save, 
my native land! May she ever be true to freedom and thee! " 
Precious legacy ! we accept the trust ; aud here, iu the pres- 
ence of the honored dead, and before Ahnighty God, do pledge 
ourselves to carry on to full consummation the glorious work 
Abraliam Lincoln begun. Come weal or come woe, if, after 
the armies of rebellion are scattered as chaff before the wind, 
the enemies of freedom, in despairing and deadly hate, shall 
ply the incendiary's torch and the assassin's dagger, laying our 
cities in ashes and our mighty men low, never, no, never, while 
a house remains or a loyal heart beats, will we grant slavery a 
foothold on our soil, or allow other than the glorious old stars 
and stripes to float within our borders. By the blessing of God 
the Union and Freedom must and shall be perpetual ! 

To-morrow, and on successive days, a sad procession will 
pass through the land ; its path everywhere bedewed by the 
tears of a stricken people bearing the remains of our loved 
chieftain to rest within his prairie home. There will be a new 
shrine of freedom for pilgrim feet. Mt. Vernon and Spring" 
field will hencefortli be kindred shrines. The lovers of man, 
the friends of freedom the world over, will turn to them to 
kindle anew the fires of patriotism ; and pilgrims of every 
tongue will bend with uncovered head and word of blessing 
over the graves of Washington and Lincoln. But to the 
tomb at Springfield will come, as tliey never came to Mt. 
Vernon, children and children's chihlren of the enslaved re- 
deemed from bondage ; and no spot of eartli will be wet with 
more sincere tears, or hallowed by more grateful memories, 
than the grave of Abraham Lincoln. 

Turn we a moment from the dead to the living ! Andrew 
Johnson sits to-day in the chair of Abraham Lincoln. He wears 
the radiant crown Lincoln wore so worthily. Can we give 
him like confidence ? take him as worthily into our heart of 
hearts ? We think we can. He, too, is a man of the people, 
a true man : his manhood has been trained in stern conflict 
with poverty, lack of educational privilege and caste. But an 
iron will and a high purpose have raised him to sit among tlie 
peers of the land, and made him a peer among them all. We 



14 

cannot wliolly forget that, in an unguarded hour, under the 
depression and exhaustion of care and sickness, he brought 
shame on himself, and bowed our heads in sorrow. No more 
can we forget his stern, uncompromising devotion to the Union, 
his true and fearless patriotism, his singleness of loyalty, that 
made him the Abdiel of Southern senators : " faithful found 
among the faithless, faithful only he," Despite a life-long at- 
tachment to the Democratic party, despite proslavery and Se- 
cession influence dominant in his State, despite bonds, impris- 
onment, spoiling of his goods, exile, and loss of every thing 
but life, and that in daily peril, he has stood firm, and never 
wavered in his love to the old Government and the old flao-. 



" Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, uuterrilied, 
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal : 
Nor number nor example with him wrought 
To swerve from truth, or chaug^e his constant mind, 
Though single." 



Nor can we forget his steady, onward march towards univer- 
sal emancipation ; and that he stands to-day, and for months 
past has stood, the bold, earnest, unflinching advocate of un- 
conditional freedom to every slave in the land. To his efforts, 
in no small measure, it is due, that Tennessee shines to-day a 
bright star of freedom, and ready to place another pure, un- 
sullied gem in our national crown. 

With this record he comes to us, pledged to carry out and 
consummate the great work Lincoln has begun, to renew and 
make perpetual the union of these States, and establish the 
reign of freedom in all the land. How shall we receive him ? 
You remember, when the great Hebrew leader, like our be- 
loved Lincoln, was taken away, while yet his eye was undimmed 
and his natural strength not abated, in the full vigor and prime 
of his manhood and wisdom, the tribes turned reverently and 
lovingly to his successor, tlie valiant son of Nun, and pledged 
him the like loyalty and obedience they had rendered to Moses. 
Shall we not, to-day, so turn to Andrew Johnson, and say, in 
the beautiful, touching language of Israel, " According as we 
hearkened unto Lincoln in all things, so will we hearken unto 



15 

thee. Only the Lord thy God be ivith thee as he vuis ivilh 
Lincoln, — only be strong and of a good courage " ? 

We may find a parallel, in the characters of Moses and Josh- 
ua, to those of Lincoln and Johnson, also in the work given 
them to do. Moses was the meekest of men, kind, patient, 
gentle, not easily provoked : he was suited to guide a capri- 
cious, captious, murmuring people through the rough wilder- 
ness, conciliating and binding together discordant factions by 
his long-suffering and patient endurance. But he bore in his 
hand only a shepherd's rod ; and when the hour came for 
driving out the idolatrous nations of Canaan, lest, if suffered 
to remain, their pernicious opinions and practice should seduce 
the people of God, a wmrrior-sword was demanded. Hence 
Joshua, whose sword was terrible to the foe, was the leader for 
the hour. Lincoln was meek as Moses ; his heart tender as a 
woman's, he " cherished hearts that hated him," " carried in 
his right hand gentle peace; " and, in the conflict of parties 
and factions, his was the spirit that conciliated and bound to- 
gether the people ; but the hour had come when traitors were 
to answer to justice their deeds of perjury and blood ; and 
stern, inexorable law was to decide their doom. A man of 
another mould was demanded, a magistrate to bear a sword, 
a terror to evil-doers. Andrew Johnson is that man. While 
he looks with lenient kindness on the deluded masses whose 
bitter experience of slaveholding oppression he has shared, the 
proud, blood-stained, perjured leaders quail before him; for all 
his past record shows that he will vindicate law and govern- 
ment against treason, and mete out just penalty to traitors ; 
and ivho knoiveth luhether he is come to the kingdom for such 
a time as this ? 

We pledge him our confidence and co-operation in this great* 
work of justice ; and if he shall prove as true in purpose, as 
unselfish in aim, as earnest, toiling, and faithful a worker for 
the Union and Freedom, as Abraham Lincoln, we will love him, 
pray for him, revere him in life, and mourn him in death, as 
we have the beloved Lincoln. If, by the l^lessing of God, he 
shall prove himself as true a man for the coming hour as Lin- 
coln for the hour past, and shall bring back every State to the 
Union and Freedom, crushing out treason and traitors with 



16 

iron hand, and establish government and law over all the land, 
so that justice shall be maintained, and not a stain defile her 
pure ermine, then, when in all coming time our history is 
written, we will record the " first three " of our mighty men, — 
the names of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew 
Johnson. Their memory shall never die. It will live in story 
and song, be written on the page of a history all the world will 
read, sculpture and painting will exhaust their art to give it 
embodiment and perpetuity ; but its most enduring monument 
will be in the hearts, the living hearts, of the millions on mil- 
lions of glad freemen, who, amid Northern snows, and sunny 
plains of the South, by Atlantic and Pacific shore, along the 
mighty rivers, under the shadow of m.ountain-ranges, and on 
broad, beautiful prairies, shall reap the glorious harvest spring- 
ing up everywhere, all over the land, from the seed sown by 
these true and faithful workers for God and Freedom. 

No ! their memory can never die ; for generation after gen- 
eration of grateful, happy freemen will keep it ever fresh and 
green in ])crennial bloom and beauty, 



Long, long as the star-spangled banner shall wave 
O'er the home of the free, the laud without slave. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 839 304 1 



!A^iy^^^v 



111*!*' 



